Cole Stuart on How to Balance Personal Demons and Love
by THEslipKID
Summary: Cole Stuart fights with the demons from his past and tries to learn how to love again after losing so many to IAAN. He struggles between focusing on his mission and focusing on one of the lab workers, Riley.
1. Chapter 1

I was in the lab working undercover for The Children's League on the cause of IAAN, the terrible brain disease that ravaged the country and destroyed my family. It had taken Claire and had turned Liam and I into monsters. I had to find the source so I could take down the bastards that had killed my little sister, the only bright light in a world full of darkness. We were so close, so painstakingly close to finding it, but there was something missing, something was not right. And I was going to figure it out. This was more of a personal vendetta more than it was a mission to help the Children's League. They were the way out of this hole that we were in. I'm sure of it, it's the only thing that keeps me going. The only thing keeping me from spiraling into a devastating depression like the one that almost drowned me after Claire's death.

NO! I can't think like that anymore!You're here for one reason and one reason only and that's to avenge Claire's death.I wasn't going to let IAAN take more victims than it already had. No I would navigate this disease on my own. I would destroy it.

Alban would be so ashamed of me now. I'm wasting time thinking about the future. I was going to trigger the anxiety again and I couldn't have that, no. The anxiety would just lead to panic attacks, the attacks to isolation out of fear, and the isolation to depression. Cate and Alban had already done too much for were my heroes,no matter what Lee said about them. They saved me, they were not worthless monsters looking out for themselves. They helped me more than Lee ever did. I'd probably be dead if they hadn't recruited me and Lee. I remember it like it was yesterday...

Me and Lee were on the run, the skip tracers were on to us and I couldn't endanger Mom and Harry, I had to protect them. We left in the middle of the night. We ran for the woods and didn't look back. We left them a note of course saying we loved them and only wanted the best for them and such. Lee decided that we should go to a Waffle House, I was over the supposed IAAN diagnosis cutoff and Lee could easily pass as twenty even though he was only fourteen. People thought he was older than me sometimes, I didn't like it but it was helpful now. Lee's an idiot so of course he decides to use his Blue abilities in public, "Nobody will notice",he whispered," I was really close to the door."

"Well if that's the reason we get caught, you ain't making it to camp buddy, you'll be dead before we're in the car." I shot back.

"Okay Cole, you don't have to worry about me all the time. I'm a big boy now." Jesus, kid turns fourteen and he thinks he knows everything about anything. We ate our food and when we're done the kid has the audacity to use his powers again to take his trash to the trash can. I saw a woman looking our way and freaked out. I knew that she had caught mind started racing as to all the different possibilities. She could torture us. There were people like that. She could capture us and make us use our powers for whatever her twisted mind had in store. She could turn us into the government and they'd ship us into a camp, probably separating us. She walked over and pulled out a gun. Seeing that I was the older, over-protective brother she jammed the gun into Lee's ribcage and said, "Come with me to my car, I don't want to make a scene. One word or protest out of either of you and Blondie over here is a goner." We followed her out to the car and seeing no choice we climbed in the backseat.

The woman said,"Hello, my name is Cate. I'm not going to turn you in. I'm one of the very few people who you will be able to trust in this world so you better respect me. I'm your ally. I work for the Children's League trying to take down the camps that are imprisoning the camps. I know that at least one of you has powers as exhibited by Blondie at the restaurant. Does Big Brother have powers too?"

"No, I'm over age. I'm nineteen ma'am." I stated. She'd believe me she'd have to. There's nobody else like me. I'm a lone wolf. The only people who know are my step-dad and mom. And even they weren't supposed to know. I realized how big of a secret this was when I first found out that I could set fire to my hands. I didn't know what happened in those camps, but from the way Mom was acting about the situation, I knew it wasn't anything good.

We drove on all while Cate was making some calls. That made me nervous, really nervous. I could tell that Lee felt the same way about it too. Our older sister Lacy was ran over by someone who was fiddling on their phones while driving. She was crossing the street to pick me up from karate. "Could you not do that?", I asked.

"Do what?", Cate mouthed back.

"Drive while talking on the phone, it's making me and my brother really uncomfortable.", I pleaded.

"Yeah, no, sorry Rob. Just one of the kids being stupid. I'll be at the airport in about fifteen or twenty minutes.", Cate continued to babble on with Rob and then Sami and then Teresa and then Alban and finally back to Rob. She only stopped when we were at the airport. She jumped out of the car and sprinted to a man in a dark suit. He picked her up and kissed her. We got on the private jet and Cate put me and Lee back in third class,I guess everyone was afraid us. She and Rob headed up to first class, probably to make out all the way to L.A. Lee and I enjoyed a silent ride to the rest of our lives. We met Alban and other kids like us, even though they only paid attention to Lee seeing as they only knew he had powers. We started training and then ops. Lee, the little coward, couldn't see fit to help. He refused to go on ops and declined training. He moped and complained about how this wasn't really a good place and how it was turning me into a monster. "No Lee, you're the monster!", I shouted at him one night. " You're a freak! You're a freak! You're a freak! You need to help us. We'll find the cure I promise. Then we'll be unstoppable. We'll find Mom and Harry. They'll forgive us. God will forgive us if that's what you're worried about. So what if we have to kill a few people for the greater good. It'll help us all in the long run. Please Liam for the love of God just. be. normal!" I sighed, exasperated.

He gave me a look with those puppy dog eyes of his and said," Cole, I don't know how they did this but you're not yourself anymore. They changed you. And I don't know you. I don't think I ever will again." And with that he left and I never saw him again. I contacted him two weeks ago, seeing that he almost got caught by skip tracers, I'm on the skip tracer network, and made arrangements about him getting a hold of me if he ever got into another sticky situation. I may not see eye to eye with him anymore, but I had a promise to keep to Mom that I would protect Lee no matter what.

I looked shook out of my daze and looked at the clock. Ten o'clock already. I need to get out of here and go home. I clocked out and headed out to the staff parking lot. I unlocked the doors to my Chevy and drove home thinking of absolutely nothing. And you know what it was really good.


	2. Chapter 2

**This probably isn't the actually cause. I'll revise it when Alex releases the third book but until then I'm just making up something that could've happened. Please don't hate.**

I wish Lee would call. I know it's what I thought I was dreading but in all reality, I wanted, no needed him to call. I've been having terrible nightmares about him dying and getting hurt. They keep me up at night. I'm afraid to sleep at night and it's really affecting my work. I can't think straight and everyone else has to pick up my slack. We're so close to finding the cause, which is the first step to the cure. We think that's it's a government project gone wrong. We're picking up minor brain damage in the frontal cortex and a fusion of the left and right part of the brain that was caused by chemical exposure. It's a mixture of lots of different chemicals so we haven't been able to pinpoint any of the chemicals yet and it's so frustrating. It's taking it's toll on everyone, knowing that we're so close but so far away.

I wish that I could contact Snowfall in Georgia but if anyone found out we were communicating we would both be dead and they would find the Children's League and kill them to. So now I just communicate using these gadgets that a bunch of Green brats made.I guess they were pretty helpful though. It's eight o'clock now I should probably go. I was starving and hate ding alone. I saw Riley across the parking and ran up to her," Hey Riles, do you wanna go get some pizza. I'm starving and there's nothing to eat at the apartment."

"Uh, sorry Cole, but I'm exhausted. It's been such a long week. It's been hard getting out of bed in the mornings if you know what I mean.", she stuttered.

"Riley, what's going on? This isn't like you. Let me take you home. I don't want anything to happen to you.", I knew the symptoms of depression and she sure was displaying them. I just don't want her going down that hole. And if she already was, I didn't want her spiraling out of control. I have to protect her from herself. I can't let her go through this alone.

"No,no I'm fine. It's just, I don't know. I haven't been feeling great. I think I just need to sleep it off and get out of this funk."

"Riley, please let me take you home. I'll just drop you off at the door. Let's talk."

"Okay, sure, I don't have any better offers." she spoke with a smile.

"Let's drive my car. I'll take you home and I'll even pick you up in the morning so you don't have to walk."I grabbed her hand and playfully pulled her towards my."Come on Riley. I don't bite I promised."

"And who do I have to verify that?', she laughed.

"Well nobody I suppose, just my word.", I winked back at her.

We drove home and I didn't get to talk to her about depression. It just didn't come up. I'll get to it in the morning. For now we'll just talk, laugh, and listen to the radio. They only play the classics now Queen, Aerosmith, The Who all the good ones. I sang along at the top of my lungs and Riley just laughed at my out of tune singing. I dropped her off at the door and promised that I would be there at seven o'clock the next morning.

"Good night Riley.", I called out the window.

"Night Cole.", she waved.

I don't know what the feeling was in the pit of my stomach, but I knew it had to do with being around her.


End file.
